Why is Software Testing Being Outsourced?

What should businesses consider while outsourcing Software Testing?

2016 has been a year of mashups in the enterprise technology space! The enterprise software market has witnessed some phenomenal upgrades such as Cloud accessibility/SaaS, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, Smart devices, intelligent systems, intelligent applications, etc. Open Source innovation has taken the commercial tool players by a storm and software testing has taken a whole new stance in the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).

The year has seen a lot of partnerships amongst industry folks in order to enhance value for the customers. For instance, today even titans like Microsoft can’t claim to own a customer’s entire enterprise software business. Companies are working together to enhance their products and jointly reach out to their customers with added value.

There have been a lot of new entrants in new age technology sphere and even a bunch of established tech companies have revamped their strategies to accommodate more collaborative stabs. Facebook’s Workplace, Google’s G Suite, Microsoft’s Team are instances of some collaborative developments that will pace up in 2017.

Collaborative launches, digitisation of business etc. have led to increasing dependence on software for internal and external facing jobs. Consequently, this has amplified focus on software testing within the SDLC. This increases the costs of testing, expenditure on testing infrastructure, testing tools, and right skill sets to implement them – some of the key reasons for increasing demand for outsourcing software testing.

In the competitive marketplace, the costs associated with failed applications can soar and bring down enterprises not just for monetary reasons, but also with the company’s image. Fixing the code post failure is futile and will never mend the losses. Testing is perceived and implemented as an enabler for companies who want to build market-ready products and services.

App stores are flooded with inventive applications for individual consumers and are readily available for immediate use. API testing, Performance testing, and Functional testing are crucial to ensure market-readiness of the application. Fintechs are coming up with amazing interfaces to make life easy for consumers.

Can you just imagine the security risks and stakes that are involved? Risks like data breaches and app breakdowns can cost dearly not just for the company, but more miserably for the users who are trusting the applications with their sensitive information.

In the present day, testing cannot be one-dimensional. It is multi-dimensional and works with an Omni channel objective. Expertise and robust infrastructure are required to meet these multiple objective and create a unified experience.

The web has a whole gamut of options and services for the consumers with various third party collaborations. Failure is a big NO! Banking spends exorbitantly on software development, as there are high risks involved where financial data is shared and used during third party transactions.

What you need is expertise, infrastructure, strategy, best practices, and skilled resources to bring effectiveness in the approach. However, choosing a testing partner can be a defining point for you – financially and technically. Let’s look at various aspects right from a testing strategy to the partner’s reputation while taking such a critical decision.

Why software testing is increasingly being outsourced and what you must look out for with your testing partner are two interlinked questions that we are trying to answer here.

Expertise

While choosing a testing partner, you got to pull down some key questions. Is the company well-established? Does it have enough experience? Do they have basic client-communication protocols? What are the types of testing the company does and how updated it is with technology know-how?

At the same time, an updated testing partner might be able to talk about IoT testing and emerging technologies, but it is important to know whether it is able to talk your language and do right things for your enterprise. Matching up your needs with the expertise of the partner is critical.

You should discuss aspects like communication channels amongst the teams, turnaround time, and methodology that could fit into your overall IT ecosystem.

Resources

Your obvious reason for outsourcing has been, why to build resources and skill sets when expertise is readily available and the resources do not need training. Your testing partner must have experienced with an astute team that is updated with the technology that you need and can advise you on the right methodologies.

Ensure that the partner can deploy the required number of resources whenever and wherever required, as that will determine success for your project and efficacy in the delivery process.

Cost-effectiveness

Cost is an important aspect to consider, however, it should not result in hiring amateur resources. This will lead to generation of same costs, or rather increase the costs with no output. It is recommended to not rest your decision only on the cost factors.

In fact, avoid players that give you lowest estimates, when compared in the marketplace.

Reputation in the market

Relevance and credibility of your potential partner is absolutely crucial. Get a cue and do some research on the company’s leadership and reputation in the market. During some instances, it is advisable to go with well-established players as against a small start-up with no clue on the work ethics.

Do some research on the awards and the kind of recognitions that the company has received in the testing/software fraternity. Ultimately, assess the company’s client database and get a cue on its performance and delivery success.

Ethical conduct

We recommend working with a partner that values ethical conduct and displays a responsible attitude. While the partner advises you on the right strategy, it must also stand by it in times of failures or issues.

Choose a company that bears responsibility for the output and delivers consistently.

Evaluate by your objectives

In this entire equation, it is important to constantly look at your business/project’s objectives. The knowledge of the partner, work ethics, costs, performance, reputation, has to be weighed as per your requirements.

Only when the entire equation balances by your objectives, you would be able to bring value and deliver market ready products/services.

Questions like, the testing partner has the best of testing labs, but is it relevant for my needs? Is the costing too less to believe in their capabilities? Are the communication lines open 24*7? What if there is a security lapse, what is the back-up plan?

If you can find answers for all these questions, you are sorted and this could be a defining moment in your development process!

Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) brings many benefits to an organization in terms of improved quality, speed to market and lower cost of ownership. Today, enterprises need robust applications and quality, but at speed. Outsourcing an important function like this to an expert testing advisory can work wonders.